Eric Dane & Rebecca Gayheart win legal battle over tape

“Grey’s Anatomy” star Eric Dane and his wife, Rebecca Gayheart, have won their legal battle with a website which posted a risque video of the couple with a former beauty queen.

The actors were furious when footage of them frolicking nude with former Miss Teen USA Kari Ann Peniche hit the Internet last August and they filed suit against Gawker.com, claiming the website’s bosses unlawfully posted footage and “maliciously” distributed the video.

The legal battle was settled this week, with executives at Gawker agreeing to take down the video and pay an undisclosed sum to the couple in exchange for no further legal action.

A statement from Gawker boss Gaby Darbyshire, released to the Hollywood Reporter, reads, “Although we are confident that our use of the video on Gawker was protected fair use, because the posts already had been available to our readers for nearly a year, and because we already had won an important decision from the court striking large parts of the plaintiffs’ damages claims, we agreed to remove the posts as part of a global settlement to avoid the burden of further litigation.”